Health Care Reform

The Big Lie Revived As Last Ditch Effort By Critics Of Health Care Reform

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Earlier today, I wrote about the number one political lie of 2009–the claim by Sarah Palin that the health care legislation under consideration provided for “death panels”.

As the year ends and the health care legislation is about to pass the Senate, the opponents are reviving this ridiculous, completely unfounded lie!

At this late moment, Sarah Palin is reasserting her belief in this total fabrication, and she has been joined in this effort by Michele Bachmann, and Fox News Channel!

Why is it that these women and the so called “news channel” have no decency and dignity, and are willing to perpetuate a lie, and promote fear and division and uncertainty and insecurity among the American people?

In the long run, these sources of division and manipulation will suffer in the public estimation once the health care legislation is in full swing and seen as a positive development for the American people. That day coming cannot be soon enough!

The Leading Political Lie of 2009–Sarah Palin And “Death Panels”

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PolitiFact, the organization which tracks politicians’ statements for their veracity, has determined that former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin had the leading political lie of the year 2009.

Palin’s contention that the pending health care legislation would promote “death panels” for senior citizens and the handicapped had a dramatic effect this summer and fall, encouraging and stirring the Tea Party/Freedom Works crowd, and causing the rowdy town halls during August and September.

A total fabrication by Palin, it promoted an ugly atmosphere and delayed health care reform, and is totally untrue as every thinking person realizes. But there are still morons in this country who will continue to believe what they want to believe, such as there is no global warming, and the earth and mankind was created six thousand years ago, and man never went to the moon from 1969-1972, and September 11 was a government plot! For some people, there is no hope of rational thought! 🙁

Republican Concession On Health Care Reform’s Future

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It is very interesting that some Republican senators are admitting that the party is gambling its future by being in total opposition to the Health Care Reform working its way through Congress.

The admission has been made that it is highly unlikely that the legislation, once passed, could or would be repealed in the future, as it would require a President willing to sign the repeal, and a 60 vote margin in the Senate for the GOP with total loyalty to overcome a Democratic filibuster. The odds of a 60 member Republican Senate are near zero!

This conclusion has been stated by Idaho Senator Mike Crapo and Wyoming Senator John Barrasso. It makes a lot of sense, and it means the Democrats will gain the credit for the passage of health care reform long term, even if short term they might suffer electorally, which is still very much up in the air.

Again, it will be the Democratic Party which will be seen historically as the party of reform–Social Security, Civil Rights, Medicare and Medicaid, Environmental laws, Consumer laws, Labor Reforms, and dealing actively with the effects of the Great Depression and now the Great Recession!

On Top Of Copenhagen Embarrassment, Now James Inhofe Is Absent From Senate!

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When Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn prayed the other day that some senator in the majority would be absent so that there would not be 60 votes for passage of the Health Care Reform, he had no way of knowing that his own colleague, James Inhofe, just back from the embarrassment of his ridiculous presence at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit, would decide to be go home for Christmas early, leading to a procedural vote of 60-39 in the Senate on the health care bill.

For a senator supposedly so committed to his whacko views, it is ironic that Inhofe would fail to sacrifice his time at home, as the other 99 senators are doing, having their final vote on passage scheduled for 7 am on Christmas eve, before they go home.

Senator Inhofe, obviously, does not care how his colleagues in the Senate feel, as he is an arrogant, strange character. It adds to the image that although I believe both senators from Oklahoma are the worst tandem of any state in the Senate, that Inhofe is indeed WORSE than Tom Coburn, and that is not easily accomplished! 🙂

We can only hope that Oklahoma will some day wake up from its stupor and defeat Inhofe, but unfortunately he was just reelected in 2008, so can afford to be as arrogant, ridiculous, stupid and irrelevant as he wishes to be for the time being! 🙁

Support From American Medical Association And Public Opinion Poll For Health Care Legislation

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Good news for the Obama Administration comes from the head of the American Medical Association, who calls the Senate bill good for America.

This is an important moment for that support, and a poll also indicates that as more people follow the health care debate, the public support is growing, as it becomes obvious that the GOP is promoting fear tactics and misleading information to try to defeat the bill.

It seems assured that a year from now, the American people will understand what the Democrats have done is for the good of the nation, and the Republicans will suffer electorally for their total opposition to dealing with this most important issue!

This does not mean that the Republicans will fail to gain seats in Congress, as that is a normal result in the midterm election for the party out of power. But those who think there will be major gains will be very surprised next November!

Congratulations To Senator Bernie Sanders For National System Of Community Health Centers!

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Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is to be congratulated for gaining a provision in the Senate Health Care bill providing for $10 billion to be spent on a national system of Community Health Centers!

The Republican opposition and conservative talk show hosts are condemning this and other special provisions set up in the bill, which helped to gain support of Democratic senators to cut off the filibuster.

But one must understand that every member of Congress is expected to support and promote programs and benefits that will be positive for their states and districts, what are called “earmarks” by critics.

You would think that Republicans have never asked for “earmarks” with their holier than thou attitude. This thought, that they are Puritans, is totally ridiculous.

In my mind, what matters is whether the “earmark” is a positive development, rather than just a waste of money, such as the “bridge to nowhere” promoted by former Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska.

Certainly, what Sanders has gained for the country and its poorer citizens is not just a benefit to Vermonters, but to millions of people who cannot afford a doctor. Since it is unlikely there will be a choice of a public option, or expansion of Medicare, or a single payer system in the final bill, all of which Sanders really favored over what he gained, this is a “consolation prize” that will benefit many needy people.

Pathbreaking Moment: Senate Overcomes GOP Filibuster On Health Care Reform!

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After a long, drawn out, highly partisan debate that has gone on for months, the Senate this morning passed a necessary step toward cloture to overcome a filibuster, and move toward later this week agreeing to a landmark health care reform bill.

Of course, even after a final vote expected to be held on Christmas Eve, the hardest job of all will be early next year to promote a conference committee report of both houses of Congress, reconciling different aspects of the bill that will be very difficult to gain compromise on, including the issue of abortion, the public option in the House bill, and funding and taxing health care in a way that will not add to the burgeoning national debt.

In many ways, the concept of victory seems elusive, as one has to wonder how the two houses will come up with a common bill. It will require statesmanship and moderation to accomplish what has been an elusive goal for nearly a century: health care reform, which even if this resolves itself, is still only a beginning step toward total reform at some point down the road in future time.

While this issue has become highly partisan, it seems to me that even this imperfect bill passed in both houses of Congress will ultimately be a plus for the Democrats, as much as Social Security and Medicare were in previous generations. The unwillingness of Republicans to work on a common goal for health care will not make them look good in the future and in historical perspective!

Great Advice From Economist Paul Krugman: Pass The Imperfect Health Care Legislation!

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Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman, Princeton economist and NY Times columnist, gives all of us who are exhausted by the Health Care controversy great advice: PASS THE BILL!

Contradicting those liberals, such as Howard Dean, who say we should drop the legislation and start all over, Krugman points out that every major reform ever passed starts out as imperfect and gets better over time.

Passage of the bill would do the following:
1. Discrimination based on medical condition or history would be banned. Pre-existing condtions would no longer be a basis for rejection, and insurance could not be canceled when someone gets sick.
2. Substantial government aid to those who are not covered for health insurance at their work would be provided.
3. Small employers who provide health insurance for their employees would receive tax breaks.
4. Premiums for lower income and lower middle income workers would drop dramatically.
5. 30 million people not covered by health insurance would come under the umbrella of this legislation.
6. This would be the first strong effort to curb health care costs, which have been rising much faster than inflation.

To follow the leanings of Howard Dean and other far left liberals would mean giving the same advice as conservatives and the Republican party has been promoting all along. But if nothing is done now, then it is unlikely that anything will be accomplished in the remainder of the Obama Presidency, and very possibly, for the next generation or more.

To believe that the Democrats will have a bigger margin of seats in 2010 or beyond is certainly a utopian vision. The time for action, although imperfect and incomplete, is NOW!

The Democratic Party Deterioration: The Obama Crisis of 2010 And Beyond

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Now it is not only Independent Joe Lieberman who has made it clear he will not vote for the health care reform bill if the public option or Medicare extension remains in the bill.

Also, the much more admirable Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has said he probably will not vote for the legislation, if it does not INCLUDE the public option or Medicare extension, or even better, a single payer system.

Plus Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska has stated that if the bill does not disallow abortion coverage, then he will not vote for the bill.

It looks more and more as if this health care legislation is in deep trouble, and even an attempt to recruit the two Maine women senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, seems unlikely to work because they have their own special problems with the legislation.

If the legislation does not pass in a reasonable form to bring real reform, the American people will be the losers, and the health insurance industry will have a big victory.

And, unfortunately, it could be the end of the dream of a real reform period under President Barack Obama. A defeat now would be hard to recover from, and particularly so with the unrest within the party over the “surge” of troops in Afghanistan ordered by President Obama. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made it clear she will not lobby her colleagues to back the Afghan appropriations bill and is tired of backing funding for wars she does not believe in.

The possibility of major Democratic losses next year, with the decision of four House veterans to retire, is alarming, and it is highly unlikely that the Obama Administration will have any better an opportunity than right now to promote real reform initiatives.

It sadly seems as if the old gridlock and stalemate so common in recent administrations is occurring again, a highly regrettable situation, to say the least! 🙁

The Mandate To Buy Health Insurance MUST Be Stripped From Pending Legislation!

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Now that a single payer system, the public option, and Medicare for those 55-64 have been dropped from the Senate bill on Health Care reform, angering progressives and abandoning the middle class in the process, there is one action that MUST be taken!

That is to drop the mandated health insurance portion of the bill, because effectively it will require all Americans to buy health insurance as demanded by, and rates set by, the health insurance corporations. Effectively, this will force many people into bankruptcy with overly expensive insurance rates, with the threat of a fine or going to prison if one refused to participate. And yet there is no guarantee that a person will actually be covered for his or her health insurance bills when they occur.

This is an outrage, and President Obama MUST make it clear that if such a provision remains in the legislation, and is not eliminated in the Senate or House of Representatives in conference, that he will veto the legislation, no matter how much he wants to see health care legislation passed by Congress!